Proposal: two guns groups: "Gun Policy" and "Gun Enthusiasts". [View all]

[DanTex]

I posted this in Meta, so this is cross-posting. In light of the push to include general gun discussions in the gungeon, I wanted to make my case here also.

Here are the advantages of splitting it up like that, rather than having just one big guns group
1) Having a single "guns" group would further alienate the "gungeon" from the mainstream of DU. A lot of people already ignore the guns forum, and if in, in addition to heated debates about gun policy, it also becomes home to "gun porn" it will further cement the status of DU Guns as basically just another gun forum on the internet that happens to be hosted on DU.

2) It will give gun enthusiasts a single place to talk about guns. I can agree that "Outdoor Life" is not ideal for this, since guns are a hobby in their own right, and there are enough gun enthusiasts who want to talk about guns themselves to justify their own group.

3) People who only want to talk about gun policy won't have to see the "gun porn". Being interested in gun policy but not guns is a completely legitimate point of view. They are really not the same thing at all -- one is about personal hobbies or self-defense decisions, the other is a policy discussion about the balance between freedom and public safety.

4) People who want to post pictures of guns won't have other people taking jabs at their "penis size". If there's a forum specifically for discussing and posting pictures of guns, then people who don't like guns shouldn't be allowed to go in there and make derogatory remarks. The reason that pictures of guns are contentious in this board is because there are people who think the gun culture exerts a negative influence on society, and view "gun porn" as exemplifying an unhealthy gun obsession. Whether you agree or disagree, the belief that guns have a negative influence on society is a legitimate one, but it is something that should be debated in a forum on "Gun Policy", not in a group dedicated to gun enthusiasts.